The weekly sentinel. [volume] (Winston-Salem, N.C.) 1886-1887, 1887-06-23
" HALLES CENTRALES.r
THE PLACE WHERE THE PARISH
ANS BUY THEIR FOOD.

An Enormous Market House with Acres
Under Cover-Methods of Buying and
SeIIinS-Stirrin. Scene at 4 O'Clock in
the Morning.
There are now twelve paVilionS of iron
and glass ut the Paris Halles Centrales.
Each one seems to be devoted to q differ
ent sort Of edibles, and yet the space thus
allotted under cover is little more than
half large enough fer the city's needs.
The four largest partitions are those where
fish, poultry. vegetables and dairy prod
uce are sold. All the pavilions are well
ventilated, the stalls are conmOdious and
<'dOwn among the dead men, are base
ment cellars. where the stall renters are
permitted to store such imperishable
goods -. thcy have been unable to dis
pose Of il the course of the day.
The wa cons bringing the meat from
slaughter houses and poultry from trains
begin y arrive about II O'Clock i'll the
evening. and they continue coming
throu -Aout the night. The employees lift
ont he baskets ard arrange them along
tha s;,lc walks. In each basket is the car
cass of an animal. either whole or cut up
into quarters, and carefully wrapped up
in stout canvas; also a label bearing the
name OF the sender, the weight Of the con-
handed to q market official. who makes
from it his memoranda. Then a number
is placed on all the merchandise which
comes from the same shipper, after which
the board of health inspector makes his
examination, marks a on all meat that
he considers fit for food and has the rest
removed to another place to be looked at
more carefully later on. When it is
finally found unfit to eat it is confiscated
and either sent to the Jardin DIES Plantes
to be thrown to the wild animals, o. is
totally destroyed.
In the meantime the forts de La halle
or market porterS, have commenced their
part of the common work. Handling the
meat which has passed inspection with
large iron hooks, they carry ii to the pub
lie weighing station, and when the weight
of each piece mas been twice recorded,
once by the clerk of the consignee and
once by the citys employc, label is fas-
tened to it with Il galvanized iron pin, and
then the meat is hung up in rows to be
sold, a Ii erie, or at public auction, to the
retail dealers, and as the pieces are sold
the name of the purchaser IS written on
the other side of the label.
This is the routine for carcasseS and
quarters already prepared, but there is
other meat in large quantities which has
to undergo two operations known as the
cpluchagc trimming and the decOupage,
or cutting up. This is done by five men,
and is difficult and sometimes dangerous
work. The decoupeurs Wear sort of
cap, to which n lighted candle is fixed;
this is the only light that they have 70 do
their work by, and it must be executed
with great rapidity in the midst of a crowd
of portcrs and other market hands. There
are, it is true, few gas jets here and
there, but not enough of them to enable
the inspectors and cutters to do their work
properly. Why don't they burn more
gas? Well, because it is known in Paris
that gas is a bad thing for meat and other
food, and the less of gas there is used
about eatables the better for mankind.
Four O'Clock is the hour when the vente
a II criee begins. The din is appalling.
Strong armed wenches, men and boys are
rushing about or pushing trucks bearing
hampers full to the brim, and statesmen
perched a!oft i'll small pulpitS baWl their
offers i'll voices which sound like dismal
howls under the zinc roofings, while Gus
toners bid i'll the same strain. The buyers
at this early hour arc stallkeepers, proprie-
tors of restaurants and hotels, and caterers
to hospitals or asylums. These people, by
coming early, get their provisions much
cheaper than the public will do in the
course of the day, though this is not true
of fish. which is subject TO astonishing
huctU&t ioitS. The wholesale selling ends
at u - clock. and now cooks and poor wives
make their appearance by thousands.
1t is Il curious and an instructive scene,
/ assure You. that of the markets at ar
early morning hour.
The street is SO crowded with people
that wheeled vehicles cannot enter; but
beyond the church stand rows of cabs,
with their horses heads facing the shops
on the other side of the little rue that runs
along the front of the ancient edifice
Here on the sidewalk stand hundreds of
baskets of fruit. grapes and whitish
brown things that on closer inspection
prove to be mushrooms. There is Il wide
passage between the two lines of pavil-
ions, and at this early hour this passage is
that lovely that even you, good people of
the golden coast, would cry out: ''Ye
gods, how beautiful The colors of all
the rainbows that have arched them
selves over the earth since Noah went
yachting greet our eyes. 1t is Il paradise
of roses, 'camellias, violetS, primroSes, of
all the flowers III the world, at least it
seems so. Farther on are things which
English people call roots, but which we in
our superiority pronounce vegetables. Hun
dreds and hundreds of rows of red carrots,
as many more rows of white turnipS:
rows three or four feet high mind you,
and so sllillfulIy piled that no yestige of
the green stems can be seen, and yet to
each root is such an appendage. And the
cabbages and the caulifowers, and the
baskets of string beans and peas and the
green stufTs for salads. and the potatoes,
.sArrah. the spuds.'' as heard the gentle
mamie may even nGvv.be one of our first
citizens for all l know-say once upon q
time in Dublin.
A little further on are the fishes, on
rO1n1